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In today’s world, our financial future as employees falls to us more and more. Employer pensions have gone the way of the dodo in the private sector. It’s mostly only government workers that have employer-provided pensions any more, and even those will steadily disappear over time too.

Unfortunately, many of us are bored by the thought of investing, or we’re not comfortable picking our own investments. So I’ve learned over time that I need to make it very simple for people. That’s why I’ve done my investment guide and have steadily tweaked it and revised it over time. In the most recent revision, I went to a 3-button system — easy, medium and advanced, just like on the ski slopes.

When you click the easy link on my guide, you’ll find info about target-date retirement funds. As you probably know, you pay a management fees and other expenses for your investments. All my choices have very low fees. New research I saw in The Wall Street Journalsuggests that you better have those low fees or you could be robbing yourself of more than a decade of leisure in retirement!

Let’s say you have 2 employees with the same amount of money to invest; the same number of years to let it grow; and the same rate of return down the road. One person picks low-fee investments (like those I recommend on my guide) and the other person picks moderate-fee investments. Well, research shows the money in the low-fee investments will carry you 12 years longer than the money in the moderate-fee investments!

You can look at The Wall Street Journal article and challenge the numbers or the math if you like. But just remember this — 12 years. That’s a long time you can have on your side by going with investments that charge low fees instead of high or moderate ones!

Clark Howard is a consumer expert whose goal is to help you keep more of the money you make. His national radio show and website show you ways to put more money in your pocket, with advice you can trust. More about Clark